Netflix & Redbox Offer John Carter Despite Disney 28 Day Delay

The LA Times reports that Netflix & Redbox have both ignored Disney's 28-day delay and are offering the movie to subscribers.

As a result, Netflix is now buying copies of recent Disney releases, including "John Carter," from other retailers rather than directly from the studio. All of Netflix's copies of Disney's big-budget flop, which came out June 5, are already out to subscribers and there is a waiting list.

Disney is the only studio at loggerheads with Netflix over the window issue, but it's not the only one fighting with Redbox. The kiosk rental company refused to accept Warner's demand that it wait 56 days to rent new releases, as its business is heavily dependent on having fresh movies. It is now stocking its machines with Disney and Warner discs that it purchases from retail stores.

Has anyone received a copy of John Carter from Netflix or Blockbuster? Netflix is showing "Very Long Wait" and Blockbuster is showing "Short Wait."

Comments

I had John Carter in my queue but got it from Redbox instead. I also got Journey 2: Mysterious Island which is a Warner/New Line Film and won't be at Netflix for two months. I think Netflix was wrong to cave into Warner on the 56 delay no matter what kind of discount they got. I think the reason Netflix wouldn't make the Disney deal is because Disney offered no discount for the 28 day delay and was going to charge the same as always. Or that's what I read, somewhere.

This is great news. I hope they start doing this more. I will quit blockbuster and come back to netflix for dvd's then. I always liked the quicker turn around of netflix, but missed the newer releases.

I had Blockbuster Online twice, and I'm guessing what they consider a "short wait" equals a Netflix "long wait".
Anyway, sometimes that "long wait" can quickly turn into a disc in the mail in about a week.

Personally I couldn't care less. They have more than enough DVD content to keep me happy. If I have to wait a little bit longer for new DVDs then so what. I already have over 100 movies in my DVD queue. I wish they would find a way to get more/better streaming content. Both old and new movies. Sure I have a streaming queue of about 50 movies that I'll eventually watch, but I'd say only about 10 or so of them are must sees.

After dropping the DVD plan last September, I just re-started in May (1-DVD out plan) and got John Carter on the release date. Thought it funny that there was a "Register Your DVD" option on the disk ... now I know why as it wasn't a normal rental disk.

Netflix must like all of you better than it likes me. John Carter isn't on my queue, but I don't remember the last time I didn't have to wait at least a month for a new release, and usually it's several months (I have almost 40 discs with long waits at the top of my queue, some have been there since January). Question: does Netflix still screw high volume users?

Side note: June 7th was the last day of school here in Las Vegas, and we had a party for the neighborhood teenage kids. Later in the night, it was movie time, and we fired John Carter up. The kid's got about an hour into it but were bored out of their minds. We took it out and put in Tucker and Dale vs. Evil which they quite enjoyed, even the ones that had seen it before.

I am NOT saying Tucker and Dale is some great movie, but it was enjoyed more than John Carter, and that is really saying something.

I agree with Walk, Tucker and Dale Vs Evil was a better movie than John Carter (IMO). John Carter was ok (but nothing great), and waaay too long. Tucker and Dale was funny, even though it probably cost them 100k to make the movie (not including actor fees).

David, I do believe NF still 'throttles' its high-volume DVD users. I have a queue that is always at or near capacity, so I have plenty to choose from - and am never in a hurry to see domestic new releases, so the studio-imposed delay's don't bother me in the least. But I have noticed that when I do move something more recent up to the top of the list, it instantly goes from a no-wait status to a red-letter delay. And then there are some titles that have been in my top 10 for more than 6 months! These are not even new releases, or even new arrivals - for instance 'Prime Suspect 3' and 'Pocahontas' (for the grandchild). It's a little frustrating, but I assume they are titles that NF has few copies of, but high demand. Other titles have been 'very long wait' from the moment I added them, regardless of the position in my queue. (Wish NF would just go ahead and get more copies already.) But I just bump up other titles while I'm waiting.

Out of 480 queued DVD titles, 30 have a designated wait time; of those, only 2 are recent releases (within the last 3 years) and all others are more than 10 years old. I watch primarily foreign language films and documentaries, and I believe that another way NF controls the distribution is by favoring those with more varied or random queues over those that are genre-heavy, when the demand exceeds the supply. Again, as long as I get to view it eventually, I can be very patient. Obviously, there are enough interesting films available such that I can always keep my queue full. I'll start to worry and complain if/when the catalog begins to noticeably stagnate, or if it becomes too lopsided, content-wise.

I'm curious to know how those with much shorter queues comprised of all-recent content are affected by wait times.

I don't doubt that may be true of some of the films I have in my queue, stonew508. I do enjoy some old (and often unusual or hard-to-come-by) cinema. But the two examples I gave are widely available at various retailers. Other than newer, high-demand choices, I have no idea what criteria NF uses when deciding which titles to bulk up on or replace. And obviously, with a finite number of physical copies of any particular movie, NF has every right to try to determine an equitable way to distribute them among subscribers. Not really complaining, just observing. So far, I have always been able to find something to bump up while waiting in line for a red-letter title. And if it's something I just don't want to wait for, I purchase it myself.

Why do they want Netflix and Red Box to hold off on renting New Releases? Do they think people will go buy them from the store? Thats crazy talk. This is what happens when I cant rent a new release. I wait for it to become available to rent. But wait! Sometimes I forget I ever wanted to see that movie and then I never rent it. Then after a few years I will see it pop up on instant stream and wala im watching it for 5cents.

The guy who first turned me onto NF, when he heard about the delay from the studios, canceled his NF sub and went pirate. And with prices for a movie ticket topping 14, 18 for 3D and 22 for IMAX where I live, it doesn't at all surprise me that more and more will go the not quite legal route.

As for the post about auto-play, why pay money when it seems NF is doing it already... last night I got a mandatory update to the PS3 client and bingo, auto-play is in there. Now I gotta call them to find out how to turn it off (do NOT want it at all).

Gee, take a look at Amazon for those titles. You are correct, Prime Suspect 3 is available and shouldn't be in short supply for NF. But Pocahantas is in normal Disney mode. The least expensive version is almost $50 on DVD (and not produced since 2000) and that's the cheapest option. That just doesn't make sense for Netflix to buy at that price. The good news is it looks like a reasonably priced set of Pocahantas 1 & 2 will be out later this summer and I bet that wait time goes away once it is.

Speaking of pirates, "The Pirate Movie" will be reissued July 3. Although I preordered it from Amazon, I'm interested in seeing if Netflix will restock. They seemed to be on a restocking binge after cancelling their Qwikster plan, but some older titles that just got DVD releases recently were never added to their catalog, like "Grandview USA" for example.

Studios are trying to hold onto a dead business model. why wait 30 days or 59 days when you can go the pirate way and download.for.free. They are pushing.people.to to do this,
when they could let.netflix stream it.I would gladly pay a few more dollars a moth for this.. Dvd is dead.. Streaming is the future